Eric O'Grady (Earth-616)
The Slaying Mantis, Eric O'Leary, Mantis | Identity = Known to Authorities | Affiliation = ; formerly , , , , ally of the Shadow Initiative | Relatives = Unborn child with Veronica King Unnamed son with Abigail Dunton | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Lighthouse, Earth Orbit; Quincarrier, formerly Damage Control HQ, New York City, Helicarrier | CharRef = | Gender = Male | Height = 5'11" | Height2 = (Variable) | Weight = 185 lbs | Weight2 = (Variable) | Eyes = Green | Hair = Red | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Former Adventurer; S.H.I.E.L.D government agent | Education = | Origin = Human using the Pym Particles-powered G.I. Ant-Man Suit; Eric O'Grady was a low-level agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who in that agency's headquarters stumbled upon scientist Henry Pym's G.I. Ant-Man Suit, and appropriated it for himself. He used his newfound suit to better his own life instead of humanity, in situations such as stealing his dead best friend's girlfriend, spying on women in the shower, and racing ants for sport. | PlaceOfBirth = Lancaster, Vermont | Creators = Robert Kirkman; Phil Hester | First = Civil War: Choosing Sides #1 | Death = Secret Avengers #23 | HistoryText = Early Life Eric O'Grady was a low level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent working in the reconnaissance department of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. He was one of the agent present when Wolverine was brought in.following the events of "Enemy of the State" Ant-Man Eric and his best friend Chris McCarthy were tasked with guarding Dr. Henry Pym's lab by a higher ranking agent, Mitch Carson. When Pym went to leave the lab, Eric and Chris panicked and Eric attacked Pym, knocking him unconscious. Inside the lab, they found the most recent version of Ant-Man's Suit, which Chris put on and promptly activated, shrinking down. Thinking him gone, Eric panicked again and ran off. Chris promptly got lost in the Helicarrier, stuck at the 1-inch size. Eric, meanwhile, took this opportunity to make a pass at Chris' girlfriend Veronica King, which the miniature Chris saw from an air vent. Around this time, a group of Hydra employed superhumans attacked the Carrier, and Chris and Eric were caught up in the ensuing chaos. While trying to find a safe place to hide, Chris was killed, and Eric took the Ant-Man's Suit off his body. Surviving the Helicarrier crash, Eric continued to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., using his evenings to explore the powers of his new suit. Seeing a man beating his wife, he tried to intervene by shrinking down and beating up the man. His attempt at punching him the neck, however, went badly wrong as Eric's attack seriously injured the man. Eric discovered the ability of the suit to communicate with Ants, which he used to stage races between the Ants living in the Carrier's ventilation system. Agent Carson Agent Mitch Carson, who was amongst the forerunners to become the new Ant-Man, was tasked with hunting down the person who had stolen the suit and given a less advanced prototype to aid him in his search. Agent Carson caught up with him, and the two Ant-Men slugged it out. A few days later, Carson discerned that Eric had stolen the suit and confronted him. They eventually ended up fighting with Eric eventually proving the victor. Carson grabbed his foot, and the Rocket Jets from Eric's suit badly burned Carson's face. Eric managed to take (the still tiny) Carson to the infirmary before finally escaping the Helicarrier, still in possession of the Suit. Eric made several attempts to "console" an upset Veronica. Eric eventually managed to sleep with Veronica, leading to Veronica King's pregnancy and Ant-Man ultimately abandoning her. Ant Man continuously used his powers of shrinking to stalk women and watch them in various stages of undress, with Ms. Marvel of the Mighty Avengers being a popular target for his ever-increasing voyeurism. Eric encountered the thief Black Fox, and stole his possessions. When the Black Fox later showed up looking for the jewels O'Grady had already sold them to a pawn shop. The two worked together, getting the $150,000 back and splitting the proceeds, with O'Grady keeping 15 percent. After saving the life of a child during his encounter with Black Fox, Ant-Man was approached by a search and rescue division of Damage Control. This organization offered him a job and, after he obtained a fake ID under the name Derek Sullivan and came up with a new superhero name (Slaying Mantis), he consented. He met a woman named Abigail, who he started dating. He leased an apartment under his new name and with Damage Control's help began to establish a new identity while continuing to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D. However, as Abigail began to fall in love with Eric, she revealed to him that she was a single mother with a son. This in turn triggered Eric dumping Abigail over her keeping her sons existence a secret from him while pursuing a romantic relationship with him. During a later confrontation with Abigail, she revealed that she possessed the power to read people's emotions telepathically. She promptly then accused Eric of truly loving her, through use of her powers to scan Eric's mind for his true feelings about her. Before he could answer though, the Hulk attacked Manhattan. Eric reluctantly joined the fray by attacking the Hulk from the inside of his body. However, the Hulk's stomach and innards proved to be just as tough and Eric ended up being discharged through one of the nostrils. He awoke in a S.H.I.E.L.D. infirmary, with Mitch Carson standing by his bed, stating that he was under arrest. Carson took Eric to a secret room aboard the Helicarrier where he tortured him using Ant-Man's Suit. Just as Carson was on the verge of burning Eric's face with the suit's jet boosters, Iron Man arrived and subdued him. Eric decided to pin the whole stolen-suit fiasco on Carson, saying that he was only trying to stop him from using the suit for evil. Iron Man refused to believe Eric though Iron Man was quickly sidetracked by the arrival of the Black Fox. Black Fox demands that Eric be released and claimed to have placed explosives on the Helicarrier in order to extort his friend's freedom. Eric refuted Fox's claims to protect him from Iron Man, leading to Fox being arrested. Joining the Initiative Eric resumed his post upon Helicarrier, having been offered his own job under unknown circumstances. Feeling guilty for Black Fox being in jail, Eric helped the elderly thief escape from the Helicarrier, with Eric admitting that he was sorry for putting Black Fox through the ordeal of being arrested. Meanwhile, despite their misgivings, Iron Man and Hank Pym reluctantly offered Eric his old Ant-Man suit back on the condition of him becoming part of the Initiative. Eric refused Veronica's attempt to try and work out an arrangement for raising their child together, in part because of Eric's inner fear that he would be a horrible father due to his utter lack of morals or ethics. Eric also had one last meeting with Abigail and told her that he did, indeed, love her. However, he told Abigail that he would be leaving for a while and wished to be with her. While doing so, he hoped that he could be a better person. Before leaving, he told her his real name. In spite of his vows to Abigail though, Eric continued his lewd and irredeemable ways upon joining the Initiative. At Camp Hammond, Eric provoked Stature when he slandered the name of her father and his predecessor, Scott Lang, blaming him for Eric's own voyeurism. Stature attacked Eric before Hank Pym intervened. When the clone of MVP, KIA, went on a murderous rampage across Camp Hammond, O'Grady was among those the recruits of his class who were defeated by the insane clone. Eric spent the rest of those events sitting in Camp Hammond's basement listening to his iPod along with Taskmaster Eric had a counseling session with Trauma, who helped him with a repressed "naked Santa" memory from his childhood. When the Skrull invasion occurred in New York city, the Initiative were ordered to fight. Eric avoided this by shrinking down and hiding. He soon discovered, however, that the Skrulls had taken over Camp Hammond. He aided the Shadow Initiative in preventing the Skulls from opening a giant Negative Zone portal, and having the entire United States removed from this dimension. O'Grady teamed up with the Avengers to battle Ultron. Thunderbolts O'Grady was promoted to a position in the Thunderbolts. Under Norman Osborn's command, he performed black ops missions to eliminate individuals who might depose Osborn from his position of a hero. O'Grady and the second Black Widow sneak aboard, O'Grady hidden in Black Widow's cleavage and take control of Air Force One with Osborn, Doc Samson, and the new President aboard. They planned to discredit Samson by placing a gamma emitter on his back, to cause him to go in a rage. Another mission was eliminating Deadpool, who was harassing Osborn for money. However, O'Grady began to regret his actions in the Thunderbolts but can't do anything about it, since Osborn would have him killed. Paladin advised that he wait until Osborn inevitably loses his mind and is taken down. O'Grady later secretly witnesses Paladin, Headsman and Ghost turn against Scourge and Mister X when they are ordered to execute Natasha Romanoff and Songbird, then erase their teammates' memories. He later assisted in the capture of Luke Cage by entering his nervous system. However, when his teammates made no effort to extract him, O'Grady helped Cage to escape, later leaving his body while he was eating. The team went up against Spider-Woman. O'Grady soon began have second thoughts on joining the team, as it wasn't the type of superhero life he wanted, only Osborn would kill him if he attempted to leave. When Bucky Barnes was captured to lure Sharon Carter out into the opening, as well as to induct him into the Thunderbolts, O'Grady secretly released Barnes when no one was looking. The team are sent to infiltrate Asgard and steal Gungnir, O'Grady once again faces off with Cassie Lang. After Scourge found Gungnir, the spear of Odin, he attempted to take it to Osborn but was stopped by Paladin. His teammate Grizzly attacked Paladin and attempted to kill him for treason but O'Grady shrunk down and entered Grizzly's ear canal, incapacitating him and saving Paladin's life. As the Mighty Avengers defeated what remained of the Thunderbolts, O'Grady found Gungnir and gave it to Paladin, who departed to take it to a safe place where Osborn couldn't find it. Secret Avengers O'Grady decided to re-evaluate the choices he had made and to do something good with his life; joining the Secret Avengers. O'Grady used the original Ant-Man's Suit. He was positioned as the rookie of the team, who teamed up with War Machine, who believed he was not worthy of the Ant-Man name. Eric inadvertently stumbled upon a group of Shadow Council agents planning to blow up his teammates with a bomb but was able to defeat them by detonating it early. Moon Knight worked with the team to stop Captain Barracuda and his crew of pirates, who had hijacked a tanker transporting two million barrels of crude. He was with the team when they worked with the Incredible Hulks. The team battled Fu Manchu He and the team worked with Taskmaster ... and was involved in the return of the Infinity Gauntlet. Ant-Man and Wasp However, O'Grady began sliding back into old habits, using his position as a Secret Avenger to chat up various women. Black Fox came to him with information about A.I.M., to hopefully boost O'Grady's standing with Dr. Hank Pym. When Abigail came by, O'Grady admitted his longing for a relationship with the intention of starting one, only for Abigail to find evidence of him being unfaithful. She left stating that while he was improving as a superhero, he sucked at being a person. O'Grady went to Pym's lab, as Pym and Reed Richards discussed how to save their reality from being overwritten. O'Grady offered to help but was told to wait. While he waited, he spoke with Tigra, who knew about his tendency to peep on women and warned him not to test her. He then met Striker, Finesse, and Veil. O'Grady chatted with the ladies and they went for drinks, during which time he passed out after they put shaving cream on his face and abandoned him. After a bizarre break-in, O'Grady awoke to find Strike, who he blamed for the prank and started a fight. Tigra saved O'Grady from Striker, just as Pym explained the situation, believing O'Grady brought in an alien who stole from Pym. It was revealed Fox used Eric to create an entrance and exit for a thief to steal an object from Pym's lab. O'Grady took responsibility and teamed up with Pym to retrieve the stolen object. Death ]] On a mission against the Descendants (a group formed by the Father), O'Grady tried to save a child and his mother. Unable to save the mom, he took the child and escaped. Eventually, when the Secret Avengers arrived to make the save, the Adaptoids found Ant-Man and asked him to give them the child. O'Grady didn't do it, even when his powers were out, facing the Descendants all by himself, buying the kid enough time to run. He was killed. The team thought he survived and helped Hawkeye and Beast to escape, but it was revealed that this was not the real Eric, but a Life Model Decoy under control of the Father. | Powers = | Abilities = Standard S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons training. | Strength = As Ant-Man he has the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. At a small size, he retains his normal strength and at large size, it is enhanced. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = * Ant-Man's Suit: O'Grady employed an Ant-Man costume designed for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Hank Pym. It contained various features from Pym's past work as Ant-Man, as well as additional equipment. ** Pym Particles: Ant-Man is able to reduce himself to the size of an ant, an approximately one-half inch in height. These particles allow Ant-Man to will himself to reduce in size or enlarge. The particles were originally distributed via a puff of gas inside his helmet. O'Grady later learned how to access the particles for increasing in size, the "G.I. Ant-Man" feature, allowing him to increase in size and strength. ** Robotic Legs: The suit contained two retractable legs that popped out of the backpack. These legs used adhesive grapples to cling to surfaces and let O'Grady climb walls. They also contained thrusters allowing him limited flight at ant-size, and these thrusters could be used offensively as well. ** Ant-Man's Helmet: Ant-Man also wore a cybernetic helmet designed by Henry Pym permitting him rudimentary communication and control of insects. His helmet also contained sound amplification equipment which also shifted the frequency of his voice so that he could be heard by normal-sized humans despite his diminutive size, as well as providing its own oxygen supply. | Transportation = * Ant-Man's Ants: Ant-Man customarily rode flying ants for transportation. * Avengers Quinjet: During his time with the Avengers, he also traveled by Quinjet. | Weapons = * Ant-Man's Wrist Gauntlets Ant-Man's wrist gauntlets enabled him to fire bio-electric blasts of adjustable force. | Notes = * Although not being an official member of the Shadow Initiative, , he was considered as kind of part of the team during the Secret Invasion, and his promotion to the Thunderbolts was seen as a loss for the team by Bengal. | Trivia = | Links = }} Category:Zoopathy Category:Trained by Taskmaster Category:Size Alteration Category:Martial Arts Category:Shooting Category:Camp Hammond Trainees